• The U.S. Congress and NASA spent more than US$192 billion (in 2010 dollars) on the shuttle from 1971 to 2010.

• The agency launched 131 flights. During the operational years from 1982 to 2010, the average cost per launch was about $1.2 billion.

• Including costs incurred over the life of the program (dating to 1969), this value increases to about $1.5 billion per launch.

Next week the shuttle program will celebrate the 30th anniversary since the first launch, of STS-1. During that time the shuttle has provided innumerable benefits, from learning how to live and work in space to constructing the International Space Station.

Nature

The fantastically versatile vehicle’s contributions to science have also been significant, beginning (but certainly not ending) with the launch and servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope.

For Houston the benefits have been enormous, from basic economic development in the southeast part of the city, to the benefits of a large and talented workforce on our communities, to the cachet of housing and training the world’s astronauts.

With all that being said, nearly $200 billion is a lot of coin for science and technology. Was it money well spent?

66 Responses

Decades from now, we’ll be seeing other countries going to space, landing on Mars, doing all kinds of crazy stuff, and we’ll say, “How is it that [country] is doing all this, and we’re doing nothing? Aren’t we supposed to be some big superpower?” And we’ll look back and find that lo and behold, a bunch of fools messed it all up for us back in the ’90s and ’00s. It’s unfortunate that something so very global and (heh) universal falls victim to petty politics and short-term economic situations. But in answer to the question, yes, it was worth it. It’s such a small percentage of the budget, and it’s sad how much we waste in other areas while not pursuing this one appropriately.

We were; there were two programs to replace the Shuttle underway during the Clinton administration (X-33 and DC-X). The problem is that they were cancelled in order to pay for Constellation. (Of course, Clinton cancelled the NASP in order to pay for the X-33.)

Posted by: JohnD at April 8, 2011 10:24 AM

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The DC-X (Delta Clipper) program was Bush 41 circa 1990, and canceled by Clinton in ’93 as I remember.

Nothing in life has improved and actually wasted our time and grief over Shuttle disasters. And, I don’t see any space research benefiting us. It’s all a hoax.

We can no longer afford this luxury.

Posted by: End It at April 8, 2011 02:11 PM

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End It humans cannot stay on this rock forever. The basic definition of economics is unlimited wants with limited resources. This planet will exhaust all it resources at some point in the future. If humans do not take more and longer trips into space we humans will dwindle to a few just as we humans started from a few. This will not be from the loss of the dwindling resources but from the wars waged for the dwindling resources.

The DC-X (Delta Clipper) program was Bush 41 circa 1990, and canceled by Clinton in ’93 as I remember.

It depends on how you want to count the program. From 1991-1995, it was a SDIO program (DC-X). NASA took it over in 1995 (DC-XA) and flew it until it crashed in 1997. They didn’t have the funds to rebuild it what with the X-33 and the ISS, but private work continued until Bush43 definitively closed the program with the start of Constellation.

Two words. Hubble telescope. Could we have gotten that piece of equipment into obrit and maintained it without the shuttle program? And I have to think that there was some benefit for international relations coming out of the program as well. Could it have been done more cheaply? Probably like just about everything else. On balance was it worth it? I tend to think so. Good think the Tea Partiers got to the party late.

The basic definition of economics is unlimited wants with limited resources. – Jaycee

I’d change the word “economics” to “economic growth taking into account an ever growing human population”. With that change this definition nails down the intractable problem we are dealing with as a species. And any politician worth winning the next vote can be reliably counted on to tout economic growth. A pointless discussion can be had as to who is leading who in this race to the end, the politicians or the voters, but no matter what there will be an end.

One of the reasons the Orbiter is so large and complex was the changes caused by Nixon’s slashing NASA (get back at JFK?). The original design was much smaller to ferry people to/from an orbiting station. When it’s mission changed, the cargo bay requirements for the KH11 required the growth and complexity we are retiring now.

The cost of two Shuttle launches, maybe one, would have paid for the entire SpaceX Falcon 9 Heavy and Dragon capsule development, which could easily have been completed 20 or 30 years ago. F9H launches are priced at $100 million; using it instead of Shuttle the US would have saved about $170 billion, and who knows how many lives.

As an aerospace industry welfare program Shuttle was a spectacular success. As an investment in aerospace infrastructure and technology it was a dreadful failure. Killing it was one of the best decisions of the Bush Administration.

Losing our super heavy lift capability was a big mistake! That $200 billion probably would have been better spent using the Apollo hardware already developed to keep Skylab orbiting and for establishing a base on the Moon.

However, the fact that NASA did develop a reusable space plane was a major breakthrough, IMO. But a smaller and cheaper reusable aerospace plane could have been developed for passengers and small payloads and placed on top of the Saturn 1B.

To: EndIt who said “No, it’s not worth it. Nothing in life has improved…”

The fact that you are writing that message on the internet IS a result of NASA programs. Let’s see, computers, cell phones, flat screens, etc… are just some of the products that are a result of NASA and DOD projects… and these products have made $192B in profit many times over!!!